Washing-machine



UNITED sTATEs PATENT *oEEicE WM. CUNNINGHAM, OF HOLLIDAYS COVE, VIRGINIA.

WASHING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 10,444, dated January 24, 1854.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, WILLIAM CUNNING- HAM, of Hollidays Cove, in the county of Hancock and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Washing Clothes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part thereof, in which- Figure l, denotes a top view, with the frame for holding and working the clothes between the rubbing rollers removed. Fig. 2, represents a vertical cross section through the red line w of Fig. l. u

Similar letters in both the figures denote like parts.

The nature-of my invention relates to the method of hanging the rubber frames so that they may oscillate through the water.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings.

The box A of the machine is made wider at bottom than at the top, for the purpose of allowing the clothes and rubbing frames room to oscillate through the main body of water, and the contract-ing of the box at the top, prevents the water from being thrownout during the washing operation. The rollers B are made with a series of swells l, and depressions 2 in the line of their length, and are so placed in the frames or side pieces C that the swell of one shall come opposite the depression of the one below it, kby which means the clothes are rubbed, compressed, and spread out, by the unequal diameters of the rollers, causing an operation very similar to the manipulations in hand-washing. The rollers, of which there may be any suitable number, are hung in the curved arms or'frames C, and the journals of the upper of the series of rollers in each frame, extend through said pieces C, and-rest in adjustable boxes D, D, in each end of the box of the machine, so that the two frames may be brought nearer together or widenedapart at top to suit the kind ,of washing to be done,

and so that the lower part of the frame and rollers may freely move through the ends in the bottom of the box. When the boxes D, D, are adjusted they are held in place by the pins 3, 4, which pass through the top of the frame and into said boxes.

The top curved ends of the pieces C, C,

are hinged at 5, 6, to the arms E, E, and

said arms are also pivoted together at 7, and a weight F, if found necessary placed there on to force down the said arms E, E, throw out the ends of the pieces C, C, at top, and in at the bottom, for furnishing sufficient friction of the rollers against the clothes on the clothes frame.

The clothes frame G, is made to reciprocate between the rubber rollers. It has a fixed bar H in the bottom and an adjustable` bar I over it controlled and held by the rod y9, and set screw 8, or otherwise, so as to 'receive and hold the clothes to be washed. A roller bar J, passes across the clothes frame from side'to side, and rests and rocks in said frame, when it is operated by the lever K, which is hinged to the upright L. On the end ofthe lever K, is a weight M, which y.counterbalances the clothes and clothes frame, or nearly, so, and when it is desired to .remove the washed clothes from the frame, or put others thereon, the lever is raised up, until the weight M, hangs underneath its fulcra, and in thatk position it will remain, until the operator again pulls down the lever, thus affording the greatest facility for putting on or taking olf the clothes and from that side of the machine where the at- 

